For the East: Freedom to Drive Their Trabants 'Over There'

For the East: Freedom to Drive Their Trabants 'Over There'

Article excerpt

Richard Schroeder, a consultant and officer in German civic
organizations, was an East German Protestant pastor, theologian, and
professor in his mid-40s when the wall fell. He detoured briefly
into politics, cofounding the East German Social Democratic Party,
then getting elected to both East Germany's first freely elected
parliament and united Germany's maiden parliament. This is an
excerpt from his interview with Berlin correspondent Elizabeth Pond.
The Politburo proposed giving everyone a passport and letting
everyone apply for an exit visa [for travel outside East Germany,
with the expectation that its citizens would then not desert the
country]. For, let's say, the normal population [young workers
voting with their feet to pursue the color, zest, and freedom they
saw on West German TV] it was the most unbelievable experience just
once in their lifetime to be able to drive their Trabants "over
there." It was also an incredible discovery to see how people in the
West actually lived. For intellectuals who were active in the grass-
roots movements [that sprang up in East Germany in 1989] it was
different. The only citizens' movement that welcomed the opening of
the wall was the eastern Social Democratic Party. …